Sports as a metaphor for business

I like the idea that, at any time, thousands of people are training for the next Olympics.

Olympism can provide a compelling example of elite performance and the passion and effort of going for, and realising your dreams. The likes of Lane4,  Top Performance Consulting Ltd  and Eclipse who I have worked with, excel at bringing the sport metaphor alive in the business world. The parallels are there. Both sports and business worlds are highly competitive environments where having a compelling vision is critical.  Where challenging goals are set and small margins make a big difference.  Environments where it is important to put processes in place. And where ‘stickability’ and team work are key.

A big difference between the two worlds however, is the ratio between training and performance.  As Westerbeck and Smith highlighted, in sport, the ratio is extraordinarily high. Typically it is 95% training, 5% performance. Whereas in business the ratio is effectively reversed.

Which raises interesting questions to reflect on.  Such as:

1. what can we do to really make the 5% count?
2. what would happen if we increased our training ratio? how could we?
3. how could we practice while we perform?